Thoughts on 3 Major NBA Injuries

Last Friday night was a gut punch for the NBA community and their fans. And this was no ordinary gut punch.  This was a devastating George Foreman right hand straight to the kidney.  Within the span of just a few hours, three major injuries rocked the NBA world, leaving basketball fans around the globe feeling like a ton of bricks had just fallen on them.  First, reigning defensive player of the year Marc Gasol exited Memphis' game against the San Antonio Spurs with an apparent left knee injury.  Then, 2010-2011 MVP Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls, who had just worked his way back from a nearly 2 year absence from the game since tearing his left ACL, came up lame in the third quarter of a game against the Portland Trail Blazers and hobbled off.  And to top it all off with some icing on the cake of despair, versatile Warriors swingman Andre Iguodala had to head to the locker room in the third quarter of their game against the Lakers and did not return.  Slowly, we started to hear whispers of how serious these injuries might potentially be.  Rumors began to swirl that Gasol had suffered a torn MCL, rumors that gained even more steam after comments that Zach Randolph allegedly made to Tim Duncan basically confirming the possibility of such an injury.  Then, we saw the images of Rose needing assistance from the training staff just to make his way out of the arena after the game.  He was apparently unable to put any weight on the leg and felt severe pain in the knee, usually two telltale signs of an ACL injury.  Seeing that he had worked so hard to make his way back from the ACL tear to his left knee, another ACL tear, this time to his right knee, would be absolutely devastating.  And a couple hundred miles away, word got out that Andre Iguodala couldn't even walk and said that he felt a pop in his hamstring.  Things were looking quite bleak for these three and all we could do was wait until their respective MRI results were released the day after.  All in all, NBA fans everywhere were able to breath a mini-sigh of relief after the MRIs revealed that things could have been a lot worse.  Marc Gasol only had a Grade 2 MCL sprain, Derrick Rose had a torn medial meniscus (ACL and MCL fully intact), and Andre Iguodala would not require surgery on his hamstring.  But the good news ended there as all three were labeled out indefinitely as their teams began preparing to be without them for a significant period of time.  Here's what these three injuries mean.

First, we'll start with the Marc Gasol injury.  Though he has no timetable to return, injuries of this sort typically need 6-8 weeks to recover from and it is impossible to overstate how much the Grizzlies will miss his contributions on both ends of the floor during that span of time.  This is the reigning defensive player of the year! He is the anchor of Memphis' top notch defense, he is their rim protector, and their best post defender.  And on the offensive end of things, his wide array of exquisite post moves and his ability to stretch the floor with his reliable midrange game have always been the secret weapon for the Grizzlies offense.  Not to mention his fine skills running the offense out of the high post where he can handle the ball and hit the open man for an easy layup or an open jumpshot.  Now with the most effective weapon that Memphis has on offense unavailable, I am expecting the Grizzlies O to stagnate a little bit.  With the lack of firepower Memphis has beyond the arc (the newly signed Mike Miller is the only 3 point sniper on the roster and he comes off the bench), they have always relied on the attention that Gasol and Zach Randolph draw in the post in order to create open looks for their complimentary offensive players.  Now, with Gasol out of the equation, teams can blitz the aging Randolph in the post (who definitely still has reliable post moves and a midrange game of his own, but is starting to look more and more washed up by the day) and force Tony Allen, Tayshaun Prince, and Mike Conley to beat them from the perimeter.  Granted, Gasol's replacement, Kostas Koufos, has shown that he can be an effective NBA big man, but he is nowhere near the offensive threat that Gasol is and could very well wind up being the #5 option of that offense.  And defensively speaking, Koufos is no rim protector (0.8 blocks per game for his career), and while the Grizzlies are strong on the perimeter D front, relying on Randolph and Koufos to deny the paint could get ugly quick.  Dave Joerger might have to get creative and play a lot of small ball with Randolph at the 5 and Tayshaun Prince as the stretch 4.  And seeing how loaded the West is across all 8 potential playoff seeds (especially with Kevin Love playing out of his mind and the Blazers coming, true to their name, blazing out of the gates this year), the playoffs may be far from a guarantee for a Memphis team that plays at the slowest pace in the league and relies heavily on their defense in order to succeed.  Marc Gasol can't get back soon enough.

Next, we have the Derrick Rose injury.  Well, the Bulls are no stranger to playing without Derrick Rose, which is what they did for the entire year last year, but if today's 39 point loss to the Clippers is any indication of what the Bulls will look like without him, Bulls fans might start turning their attention to cheering on the Bears to win the NFC North.  Rose, who had been historically awful in the first dozen games of the season as chronicled in one of my earlier posts, will nonetheless be sorely missed by Tom Thibodeau and Co.  The good thing is that the Bulls know how to run offensive sets without Derrick Rose, a skill that they got a lot of chances to hone last year, but those offensive sets are ghastly.  They involve a lot of tedious, complex plays that work the ball around and eat a lot of clock but usually just result in a Boozer midrange J, pounding the ball inside to Noah, Deng attacking the rim, or a shooter launching a 3.  The presence of the explosive Rose added that wrinkle to an otherwise dry offense and gave them a chance to produce at a high level.  But without him, expect a lot of boring and complicated offensive sets that will be almost identical to the offense that they were running last year except with Mike Dunleavy now in place of the departed Marco Belinelli.  Defensively speaking, the Bulls elite defense may not be in that bad shape because Rose's replacement in the lineup, Kirk Hinrich, is a deadly perimeter defender, but I'm more concerned for what this means long-term for Derrick Rose.  This injury, a torn medial meniscus, may seem minor just because everyone was fearing the worst for him, but still this is a very serious injury.  I can't say I'm surprised because the odds of such an injury happening to a player in Rose's predicament were pretty good.  When you suffer a major knee injury like that to one leg, naturally, your other leg begins to compensate and all of a sudden you'll find that your "good" leg gets much weaker than the leg you originally injured.  So while I can't say that I'm surprised, I'm definitely worried that Rose will never be the same.  Major surgery on both knees by the age of 25.  Do you know what that does to an explosive, lightning-fast, and crazy-athletic player like Derrick Rose? It ruins them.  Rose relies on his athleticism and explosiveness more than anything else and such surgeries will take huge bites out of those abilities.  There's definitely precedent as well.  Look at Penny Hardaway.  A dynamic, young scoring point guard who was heralded as the next Magic Johnson lights the universe on fire in his first few seasons only to blow out his knee and never be the same afterwards.  Be a real shame if something like that were to happen to Rose.  And as far as recovery time, this is a similar injury to what Russell Westbrook just came back from (Westbrook had a torn LATERAL meniscus, a bit different).  Yes, Westbrook and Rose are similarly built explosive players but the difference is that Russell Westbrook was Superman before getting hurt, never missing a game in HS, college, or the pros.  And even so, he came back a lot later than he wanted to, missing the early part of the season after the knee swelled up again and he needed cleanup surgery.  All bets are off with Rose who has already had to make his way back from the most devastating injury an athlete can suffer.  There's no telling when we'll see him on the basketball court again.  Get well soon D-Rose!

And finally, we have the Andre Iguodala injury.  Reports are that his injury is a strained hamstring and there is no timetable for his return either.  His is probably the least severe of the 3 but these types of injuries, even for a guy like Iggy with no history of hamstring issues, have the potential to become a chronic problem if it's not handled correctly and he tries to rush back (see: Miles Austin, Dallas Cowboys).  With Iguodala on the shelf for the time being, this is a big blow to the entire Warriors team.  He had really found his jumpshot this year so that added perimeter threat to go along with the Splash Bros. as well as David Lee and Andrew Bogut down low made the Warriors offense truly potent to this point in the season.  He's also their best ball-handler (sorry Steph Curry) and a lot of the open looks they got so far this year were the result of Iggy's great court vision and passing skills.  Plus, he was one of their most aggressive offensive players, not afraid to attack the rim to keep the defense off balance if need be.  And we haven't even gotten to his contributions on the defensive add as he is about as destructive of a one on one defender as they come. Quick hands, physically imposing against smaller wings, this guy could do it all on defense.  Now take Andre Iguodala out of the equation and you have a problem.  Now, especially with their other top perimeter defender, Toney Douglas, on the shelf, you're gonna see a lot of Klay Thompson defending the other team's best perimeter player, which was the case last year.  With all the energy and effort that go into hounding the other team's top offensive threat, that takes a lot out of you on the other end.  Thompson has been on a tear to start off the year, canning open jumpers from all over the floor.  But now that most of his effort will be going into defense with Iggy out, expect a bit of a regression, especially since the open looks that he has been getting might not be there without Iguodala there to get him the ball in space.  So now, other teams can focus on containing the Splash Bros. and the Lee-Bogut post duo rather than having to worry about jack of all trades Iguodala potentially breaking down the defense.  Harrison Barnes is definitely a capable replacement for Iguodala in the lineup (I'm a big fan of his underrated post-up game in particular), but the chemistry that Barnes was developing with the second unit will quickly be disrupted.  Hopefully, Andre Iguodala, as well as Marc Gasol and Derrick Rose, can get back in action soon for the sake of their teams and for the sake of NBA fans.  Here's to a speedy recovery for all 3!